paul,
i would have been willing to be that, at least over a bit of time, the numbers would drop. i'm sure new viewers would be showing up all the time. but i'm also sure that people who've been around a while would find all the searching around annoying (like myself) and would drift away (like myself).
i'm pretty surprised no one had brought this problem up!
maybe that means a lot of the people who've been around for a while gave up...i don't know.